Hey guys,
If you didn't already know, recently I've put out the 'PRO' series of my IR's, which for the tweakers of you out there, should provide some ridiculously realistic, helpful, and customizable functionality. For Nebula only, and here's what you get:
Breakdown of the controls:
- Tone -
Continuously variable control from 0 to 10. At 5.00 the signal is sent purely through a Bryston 3B-ST solid state amplifier, which is what the standard library counterparts also utilize. As you move from 5 to 10 the signal evenly changes to that of the tube power amp section of an Engl e635 Fireball 100 with the presence on 10. This will gradually give a small mid scoop and a boost to the upper mids and highs which may be just what the doctor ordered for some that feel that solid state amplification for IR captures yields a somewhat rounded and mid-heavy sound. As you move from 5 to 0 the signal evenly changes to that of the Engl with the presence on 0, which gives a small mid scoop and a boost to the lower mids and lows. The Engl's power amp was chosen as it is relatively flat for a tube power section. At a certain point in the middle the Presence control the frequency response was extremely close to that of the Bryston. This allows for the character of the power amp of the amp or amp sim feeding this to remain relatively unaffected while giving additional frequency related tone control.
- X -
Continuously variable control of the mic position along the X-axis from speaker center to speaker edge.
- Z -
Continuously variable control of the mic position along the Z-axis from the grill cloth to 12 inches away.
- Aux -
Continuously variable blend in of an auxiliary mic, in which the sonic character was created to fit about midway between that of a floor plane mic and that of a room mic. This will take a little less emphasis off of the direct sound of the speaker and mic and bring in more of the cabinet.
- Fat -
Continuously variable blend in of the OwnHammer Fat tone recipe from 0 up through Fat2.
These are presented at the mic level as they are in size and development time/effort as much or more than the whole of the standard NEB/WAV libraries.
I'd also like to touch on a topic that's come up here recently that I just haven't had two seconds to rub together to get in the middle of - Nebula vs. Convolution Reverb vs. Live Record - particularly with regard to the odd high frequency issues that some people seem to be having in Nebula development. The Nebula engine, and the NAT counterpart, are not necessarily a couple of clicks and you've got an IR kind of process. In addition to the buzzword features of dynamic volume level and multiple harmonic distortion orders, there are a TON of other configuration options both exposed in the standard NAT gui, as well as buried in the template files that the average user does not have access to.
This next part is to be read matter of factly. I'm not being snooty here, I absolutely abhor uncalled for (gear) snobbery quite profusely and the following is not me sticking my nose up or tooting my own horn.
As an officially sanctioned 3rd party developer, I have access to advanced tools and the exposed code to the underlying programming that goes on 'under the hood' of the program configuration xml, and can also freely edit and implement that into my production offerings. There is a lot going on here. For example, in the newest incarnation of my power amp programs, there were 1070 lines of code I needed to go through line by line and change things around here and there. You also have to consider that there are a great many different stock template/sessions to play around with, and believe it or not they can sound quite different capturing the same source material as they can drastically alter what is going on with the engine in the background. The exposed GUI options also can make a big difference in the sound, and some of the values just are not intuitive to interpret given a lack of laymen description to be found in any documentation.
My point in all of this? A lot can go right or wrong with the development of Nebula programs, and that there is absolutely nothing wrong with it as a platform for cabinet simulation. The overly boomy & bright, the odd and unusual, they are specific to individual programs, and have nothing to do with the engine and platform itself. My proof? I did a quick comparison of 412-GTR Bogner V31 SM57 3 Fat 1 from my NEB and WAV packages, which use the exact same capture file (just additionally truncated and dithered in post for the convolution reverb offering), so there are zero variables in the wave data, only in the convolution technology and loader:
Quickie_NEB-vs-WAV.zip
In this example I used what I assume to be the more popular convolution reverb loader, LeCab2. You'll hear the exact opposite of what you've heard before. With this said, there are other loaders that sound much closer to the Nebula version, which brings up another point - the loader makes a huge difference.
Given the built in GUI the Nebula VST provides to end users and the configurable options that can be taken advantage of by developers such as myself to utilize some of the amazing features at hand, like interpolation of values between static samples, multi-function faders, on top of being provided a top notch loader using super high resolution audio, you have an incredible platform. For those like myself who simply do not have the time to jump down the rabbit hole of VST development, you can get similar functionality, as well as access to all kinds of other varied applications - the EQ's are awesome as well.
I am not going to get sucked into any non-believer debates, I'm merely offering an inside perspective. Throughout the beginning development period I went through a great many different default/stock program templates to get my initial setup, as they all affected the sound, and some of them were susceptible to what others are experiencing now and why those did not make the final cut. Recently I've gone through another overhaul to trim the fat out on what I now consider bloated features purely for the sake of catering to buzzword expectations. The current state of the NEB and PRO IR's offer everything you need, nothing you don't, and in my humble opinion, are invaluable tools for less than peanuts, forget pennies, on the dollar. I may or may not have time to do a full on NEB vs. WAV vs. Live Mic comparison in the future, but, I've done quick ones for myself long ago and is why I continue to push forward in the Nebula department.
Lots more PRO libraries will be on their way, but here's what I've got so far:
OwnHammer Store - Speaker Cabinets PRO
If you didn't already know, recently I've put out the 'PRO' series of my IR's, which for the tweakers of you out there, should provide some ridiculously realistic, helpful, and customizable functionality. For Nebula only, and here's what you get:
Breakdown of the controls:
- Tone -
Continuously variable control from 0 to 10. At 5.00 the signal is sent purely through a Bryston 3B-ST solid state amplifier, which is what the standard library counterparts also utilize. As you move from 5 to 10 the signal evenly changes to that of the tube power amp section of an Engl e635 Fireball 100 with the presence on 10. This will gradually give a small mid scoop and a boost to the upper mids and highs which may be just what the doctor ordered for some that feel that solid state amplification for IR captures yields a somewhat rounded and mid-heavy sound. As you move from 5 to 0 the signal evenly changes to that of the Engl with the presence on 0, which gives a small mid scoop and a boost to the lower mids and lows. The Engl's power amp was chosen as it is relatively flat for a tube power section. At a certain point in the middle the Presence control the frequency response was extremely close to that of the Bryston. This allows for the character of the power amp of the amp or amp sim feeding this to remain relatively unaffected while giving additional frequency related tone control.
- X -
Continuously variable control of the mic position along the X-axis from speaker center to speaker edge.
- Z -
Continuously variable control of the mic position along the Z-axis from the grill cloth to 12 inches away.
- Aux -
Continuously variable blend in of an auxiliary mic, in which the sonic character was created to fit about midway between that of a floor plane mic and that of a room mic. This will take a little less emphasis off of the direct sound of the speaker and mic and bring in more of the cabinet.
- Fat -
Continuously variable blend in of the OwnHammer Fat tone recipe from 0 up through Fat2.
These are presented at the mic level as they are in size and development time/effort as much or more than the whole of the standard NEB/WAV libraries.
I'd also like to touch on a topic that's come up here recently that I just haven't had two seconds to rub together to get in the middle of - Nebula vs. Convolution Reverb vs. Live Record - particularly with regard to the odd high frequency issues that some people seem to be having in Nebula development. The Nebula engine, and the NAT counterpart, are not necessarily a couple of clicks and you've got an IR kind of process. In addition to the buzzword features of dynamic volume level and multiple harmonic distortion orders, there are a TON of other configuration options both exposed in the standard NAT gui, as well as buried in the template files that the average user does not have access to.
This next part is to be read matter of factly. I'm not being snooty here, I absolutely abhor uncalled for (gear) snobbery quite profusely and the following is not me sticking my nose up or tooting my own horn.
As an officially sanctioned 3rd party developer, I have access to advanced tools and the exposed code to the underlying programming that goes on 'under the hood' of the program configuration xml, and can also freely edit and implement that into my production offerings. There is a lot going on here. For example, in the newest incarnation of my power amp programs, there were 1070 lines of code I needed to go through line by line and change things around here and there. You also have to consider that there are a great many different stock template/sessions to play around with, and believe it or not they can sound quite different capturing the same source material as they can drastically alter what is going on with the engine in the background. The exposed GUI options also can make a big difference in the sound, and some of the values just are not intuitive to interpret given a lack of laymen description to be found in any documentation.My point in all of this? A lot can go right or wrong with the development of Nebula programs, and that there is absolutely nothing wrong with it as a platform for cabinet simulation. The overly boomy & bright, the odd and unusual, they are specific to individual programs, and have nothing to do with the engine and platform itself. My proof? I did a quick comparison of 412-GTR Bogner V31 SM57 3 Fat 1 from my NEB and WAV packages, which use the exact same capture file (just additionally truncated and dithered in post for the convolution reverb offering), so there are zero variables in the wave data, only in the convolution technology and loader:
Quickie_NEB-vs-WAV.zip
In this example I used what I assume to be the more popular convolution reverb loader, LeCab2. You'll hear the exact opposite of what you've heard before. With this said, there are other loaders that sound much closer to the Nebula version, which brings up another point - the loader makes a huge difference.
Given the built in GUI the Nebula VST provides to end users and the configurable options that can be taken advantage of by developers such as myself to utilize some of the amazing features at hand, like interpolation of values between static samples, multi-function faders, on top of being provided a top notch loader using super high resolution audio, you have an incredible platform. For those like myself who simply do not have the time to jump down the rabbit hole of VST development, you can get similar functionality, as well as access to all kinds of other varied applications - the EQ's are awesome as well.
I am not going to get sucked into any non-believer debates, I'm merely offering an inside perspective. Throughout the beginning development period I went through a great many different default/stock program templates to get my initial setup, as they all affected the sound, and some of them were susceptible to what others are experiencing now and why those did not make the final cut. Recently I've gone through another overhaul to trim the fat out on what I now consider bloated features purely for the sake of catering to buzzword expectations. The current state of the NEB and PRO IR's offer everything you need, nothing you don't, and in my humble opinion, are invaluable tools for less than peanuts, forget pennies, on the dollar. I may or may not have time to do a full on NEB vs. WAV vs. Live Mic comparison in the future, but, I've done quick ones for myself long ago and is why I continue to push forward in the Nebula department.
Lots more PRO libraries will be on their way, but here's what I've got so far:
OwnHammer Store - Speaker Cabinets PRO
